Puzzle Pieces • Finnick Odair

C H A P T E R 5 6

Katniss rushes out, closely followed by the other two.

They see a bald Johanna covered in bruises, ripping off the medical supplies and shoving the doctors further away. Finnick sent her a comforting smile, the bald girl gestures to a shouting Annie.

"Finnick!" Annie shouts for her friend, tearing a monitor off her arm as she gets off the medical bed, insisting to the doctors that she was unharmed.

As Katniss ran to hug Gale, Finnick ran to his friends side, bringing Annie into a hug. "Are you alright? You should sit down Ann."

"I'm fine, Finnick, really," she spoke softly. Finnick stepped back to evaluate the girls state. She was fine.

He furrowed his brows in confusion, urging the girl to explain, "Jessica. She.. she took beatings for me Finnick, she.. is she okay? Where is she? Where's Jessica?" The ginger started to look around frantically.

"What do you mean, Annie?" Finnick spoke to her whilst also looking around for Jessica, his jaw clenched together at the thought of Jessica in any type of harms way.

"She would take extra beating for me. She went through four different kinds of torture just so that I would be okay. She has to be here. She has to be okay. I- I have to thank her."

Finnick told the girl to sit down and rest, noticing the large bags under her eyes, "I'll go find her, Annie, don't worry. It'll be okay." He spoke comfortingly, mostly to himself.

Finnick left Annie with Mags, who was doing her best to comfort the hysterical ginger, and went to find his girl.

Finnick found Katniss and Gale talking, Gale pointed them to the rooms where Peeta and Jessica were being kept. They thanked any team members they saw on their way.

As Finnick went to follow, he was stopped by his friend, Boggs. "You can't see her yet Finnick, I have to talk to you first."

"What? Why?" Finnick asked, panicked.

Boggs put both his hands on the males shoulders to keep him calmly in place, "Finnick. Look at me, stay calm. She's okay. She's alive," the man rushed out quickly, in an attempt to ease the bronze haired boy. It caused Finnick to relax slightly. "She's still unconscious, the doctors are doing scans and check ups now, whilst she's asleep, it'll be easier for both her and the doctors. President Coin thought it would be better for you to be warned beforehand. She's.. she's in bad shape. Annie and Johanna are the most messed up emotionally, Peeta we are unsure of but, as of right now, Jessica is the most.." he thought of the best way to word it but came up blank, deciding to just say it. "She's clearly been through the most physical abuse, Annie informed us that she had extra torture than the rest of them. Johanna told us what happened. Johanna was drowned then electrocuted. Tracker jacker venom was used on Peeta to alter memories into fear." He paused. "Jessica was struck with electric whips on her back," he hands Finnick a picture from Jessica's file.

It was a picture of her back, littered with blue, yellow and purple bruises along with deep bloody gashes from the whips and burn marks surrounding the cuts, he swallowed the lump in his throat, "what else?" He asks through gritted teeth.

Boggs sends the blonde a sympathetic look, "she was brutally beaten both by hand and with weapons, like batons," he reluctantly shows Finnick a picture of the purple, blue and yellow bruises littering Jess' stomach, arms, legs, back, etc.

Noticing Boggs' reluctance to hand him the photos, he asks, "why do you have to show me pictures?" He looks at his new friend expectantly. If he had to endure this, he wanted to know why.

"Coin's orders," he replies unpleasantly, clearly not agreeing with how President Coin was going about this. She says 'it's best that you're aware before you see her in person.' Sorry." He continues with the list, "remember the gas from the Games?" Finnick nods. "According to Johanna they used it on her. They'd put her in a room, fill it with gas until she was completely covered, then drown her in water to relieve her of the blisters before staring the process again. They'd do it until she passed out from pain." Finnick remembered not only how painful the fog was but also how equally, if not more, painful the water was afterwards.

"They also used tracker jacker venom on her. It's different to Peeta though. They don't alter her memories, instead they make her hallucinate, make her see her worst fear: watching or losing-"

"-the people she cares about," Finnick finishes, sighing, as he runs his hand through his hair before rubbing his face frustratedly.

"Yes," Boggs confirms, "both Annie and Johanna confirmed that Jessica told them they'd inject her with a syringe full of diluted venom that would be so painful it would cause her to fall into an unconscious state of mind. That's when she'd have the hallucination. It's in a dreamlike state but feels completely real. The smell. The sound. The sight. The only difference is she can't touch the hallucinations. That's how she separates reality from the illusions. They performed the injection so many times that the venom in her body mixed in her blood as well as her body's muscle memory. This has caused the result that whenever she falls asleep, instead of having a nightmare, she can have a full hallucination," Boggs informs him, reading off the chart.

"So they tortured her so much that she doesn't even need to be injected to hallucinate?" Finnick asks, his voice layered with guilt, pain, sympathy and anger. Boggs nods, confirming it.

"Like I said, she's currently unconscious, but I think you should be there when she wakes up. For now, whilst the doctors are still working, I'll go let her brothers know. Just wait around here."

Finnick nods at his new friend, "okay. Thank you Boggs, for getting her out," Boggs nods back with a small smile, patting his shoulder, before walking off. "Wait," Finnick calls after him causing the dark skinned man to turn, "tell Brayden too, he might be with Jacob but, if not, he'll wanna know."

Boggs nods before waking off to collect Jessica's close ones.

When Jessica did wake up, she'd have many people wanting to see her. Only a small proportion to the vast amount of people she's touched the hearts of in life.

Mags, her mentor.

Jacob and Kylo, her brothers.

Annie, her sister like friend.

Johanna, her best friend.

Peeta, her newer friend who would only trust Jessica in his current vulnerable state.

Katniss and Beetee, her friends form the Games.

Brayden, her dresser and friend who sadly came alone. Despite making friendship with Jess' siblings, his sister (Valeria) and District 4's escort (Elaine) had died in the Capitol, attempting to escape with Haymitch and Effie.

Leah Connors, Dale's sister Jessica didn't know existed, who was eager to meet the girl who looked after her brother when she was unable to do so.

Jessica Miller had unknowingly touched the hearts of everyone around her, even some she had never held a conversation with.

AN: sad Finnick :(